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Pound-for-pound icon Naoya Inoue will defend his undisputed super-bantamweight title against former world champion TJ Doheny on September 3 at the Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
Inoue, on his way to becoming a two-weight undisputed champion, has knocked out eight consecutive top-level opponents.
“Naoya Inoue is a generational talent, and every time he fights, the boxing world stops to watch the master at work,” said Top Rank chair Bob Arum.
“TJ Doheny is a veteran who can never be counted out, as he’s defied the odds many times when fighting in Japan.”
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Inoue recovered from being floored for the first time, to win a wild four knockdown war against Luis Nery
Doheny, 26-4 (20), has a rich history in Japan and against Japanese fighters.
He is 3-0 against Japanese fighters and 4-0 on Japanese soil, with three victories as the betting underdog.
Doheny dethroned IBF super-bantamweight world champion Ryosuke Iwasa there in August 2018. He defended the belt against Japanese challenger Ryohei Takahashi via an 11th-round TKO the following January before losing the strap to Danny Roman in a close unification fight that April.
Despite his setbacks, Doheny has rebounded with three consecutive wins on Japanese turf. He defeated Kazuki Nakajima via fourth-round stoppage in June 2023, blasted out Japhethlee Llamido in their first round last October, and triumphed over Bryl Bayogos in four rounds on the Inoue-Nery undercard.
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Watch Inoue’s destructive stoppage win over Marlon Tapales in his last fight back in December
In Inoue though he will be facing a modern great. Inoue claimed his first world title more than 10 years ago and is 22-0 with 20 knockouts in world championship fights.
Inoue’s undisputed legacy began in December 2022 when he knocked out Paul Butler to unify all the bantamweight titles.
He then consolidated the super-bantamweight division in short order, capturing the WBC and WBO world titles by stopping Stephen Fulton in eight rounds in July of last year before vanquishing WBA and IBF champion Marlon Tapales that December.
Inoue is one of the best fighters in the world today
The 31-year-old powerhouse returned to headline at the historic Tokyo Dome in May. In the first boxing card there since Buster Douglas shocked Mike Tyson in 1990, Inoue survived a first-round knockdown to knock out Mexican two-division champ Luis Nery in the sixth.
The Inoue vs Doheny bill will also feature WBO bantamweight world champion Yoshiki Takei defending his belt against former flyweight world champion Daigo Higa.
Venezuelan puncher Ismael Barroso will also defend his WBA interim super-lightweight strap against rising Japanese contender Andy Hiraoka.
Watch Japan’s new star Junto Nakatani against Vincent Astrolabio live on Sky Sports Action at 10am on Saturday July 20
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